Three for a -
by HP Slash Luv
Summary: Xenophilius tries to be the best father for Luna that he can be.
**Title:** Three for a...
 **Rating:** T  
 **Pairing(s)/Character(s):** Xenophilius, Luna  
 **Warnings:** None  
 **Disclaimer:** Don't own 'em - not making any money off 'em. Dern it.  
 **Word Count:** 1,221  
 **Summary:** Xenophilius tries to be the best father for Luna that he can be.

 **Notes:**

 **Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition:** Season 4 - **Montrose Magpies -** Chaser 2 - Use Magpie(s) as a prompt - **Prompts -** 3\. (dialogue) "Sometimes I really dislike you." / 4. (word) varnish / 14. (quote) 'Try to be a rainbow in someone's cloud' - Maya Angelou - **Word Count Restriction -** 1201-1500

 **Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry: **[Writing Club!] The Word Prompt Express - Prompt Used - 144. Click

 **Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry: **May Event - May Events Checklist - **Prompts Used:** Day of Youth (Write about a child), National Family Week (Write about a family), Taurus (Use the following three words in your story: stubborn, headstrong, determined), Two Different Coloured Shoes Day (include a character wearing two different coloured shoes in your story), Geek Pride Day (Write about a Ravenclaw character)

 **Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry: **May Event - Go Pick Flowers - _W_ _hite Lilies and Roses_. Write about recognising how precious innocence is, in the same moment as it is destroyed/witnessed to be destroyed.

 **200 Characters in 200 Days:** 89\. Xenophilius Lovegood

* * *

Xenophilius stepped into the lab, seeing Pandora hard at work. He stepped next to a set of drawers and his hand softly brushed across the top of it. He glanced at it, noticing how the varnish was worn off a bit. He also noticed the drawer was open a crack as it sometimes didn't shut all the way, so he pushed it closed gently, listening for the soft click. It was a way to temporarily distract himself from the current problem.

He looked around the room, but with nothing else currently needing his attention, he couldn't stop from approaching Pandora and stopping just behind her chair. "Are you going to stop working anytime soon? Our daughter will like to spend some time with you before she goes to bed," he asked, attempting to keep the hostility he was feeling out of his voice.

"This is important," Pandora distractedly mumbled as she picked up her quill, dabbed it into ink, and jotted down some notes on a piece of parchment.

"I understand that, but our daughter is more important. Lately, it feels as if she only has one parent and Luna is beginning to keenly feel the loss of a mother."

"Luna is fine. Now leave so I can concentrate, Xeno."

Xenophilius shook his head, wondering what happened to his wife. The woman he fell in love with had been a bit crazy about her work, not to mention determined to succeed and too stubborn and headstrong to admit that she might need help, but her family had always come first. Lately, though, it seemed nothing was more important than her work and Luna was suffering because of it. "Pandora, I love you. I'll probably always love you, but I need to say this. Sometimes I really dislike you."

Pandora didn't even acknowledge Xenophilius's monotonous declaration and he disappointedly left her to her work after realizing he might never be able to get her to understand how much she was hurting Luna.

It wasn't hard to find his daughter because she was hanging out down the hallway. She sat on the floor, leaning against the wall, eyes locked on her different colored shoes – one blue and one red – but she moved her gaze to the door that Xenophilius had just come through.

Nine-year-old Luna smiled at Xenophilius. "Where's mommy? Is she going to come read me a bedtime story?"

Xenophilius brushed dirty blonde bangs out of his daughter's eyes. "She's still working," he simply answered.

Luna's lips screwed into a pout. "She's _always_ working."

Xenophilius sighed, hating the disappointment on Luna's face and knowing there was no way to wipe it off in their family's current situation. He would always try to be her rainbow, though, and he would do everything in his power to bring her happiness and give her the childhood she deserved. "Not _always_. You know how important the experiments are to your mom. When they're over, she'll be around more. You'll see."

With eyes wise beyond her years, Luna shook her head. "When these experiments are over, there'll be more. There's always more."

Xenophilius held a hand out to her and helped her get to her feet. "Let's go outside for a while and look at the animals, and then you can get ready for bed and I'll read you _any_ story you want."

Luna smiled widely and nodded emphatically, her most recent bout of anguish completely forgotten at the prospect of seeing animals. He wouldn't be surprised if she became a magical zoologist when she grew up. That was how great her love of animals was.

He held her hand while they walked outdoors but as soon as they were out in the fresh air, Luna let go of him and twirled in a circle, pointing at each animal she saw. "A wild kneazle," she excitedly squealed.

Xenophilius smiled indulgently and listened to her loud shrieks and watched her wild hand gestures.

Luna tilted her head to the sky, ready to broaden her animal seeking. "Huh," she mumbled.

Xenophilius followed her gaze, wondering what had Luna so interested. That's when he saw them. Magpies flying above them, forming a circle. He mentally counted them. _One. Two. Three._ His breath caught, but he shook his head. He couldn't think about what seeing three magpies were said to mean. It was nothing, just an old superstition. It was just a rhyme that didn't have even a grain of truth. Even as he told himself that, he couldn't help himself as he mentally thought back to the words of the rhyme he learned a long time ago.

 _One for Sorrow_

 _Two for Mirth_

 _Three for..._

He swallowed, mentally cutting himself off before he finished the line.

"Daddy?"

Xenophilius looked at his young girl and forcibly rasped, "Yes?" He cleared his throat and asked in a steadier voice, "What's wrong, Luna?"

"Those are magpies, right?"

"Yes."

"Why are they flying in circles like that?"

Xenophilius's eyes drifted back to the sky. "I'm not sure, but I'm sure it's nothing to worry about."

Luna didn't answer but she tore her gaze away from the sky and looked at Xenophilius with clear eyes. "I'm ready to go to bed, daddy."

Xenophilius took her hand and led her back inside, pushing all thoughts of magpies out of his mind. It was nothing. _They_ meant nothing.

It was two weeks later, and Xenophilius was in his own study when he heard an explosion, the horrifying sound emanating from Pandora's lab.

He raced to it, praying everything was okay, and that it was just a minor mishap that sounded worse than it was.

Luna was sitting outside of the room, wide horrified eyes staring at the doorway that was ajar. Xenophilius quickly stepped inside and the first thing he noticed was the mess. And then he saw her. Pandora laid in the center of the destruction, hair spread around her in a golden halo, her eyes closed. If it hadn't been for the blood, Pandora would have looked like she was sleeping.

He rushed to her side and knelt down. He took out his wand and ran diagnostic spells, but there was nothing to diagnose. She wasn't breathing. She had no heartbeat. Whatever had gone wrong in here had an instantaneous affect on Pandora, and there was nothing Xenophilius could do to fix it.

He looked back towards his daughter and automatically knew Luna saw the whole thing, saw her mother die. And that day, Luna had lost her precious innocence, and there would never be any reclaiming of it.

Days later when he and Luna huddled together in front of the casket, Xenophilius couldn't stop his mind from going back to the line about magpies that he couldn't finish internally.

 _Three for a funeral_

He never believed that seeing magpies really foretold misfortune, but he couldn't deny that what the song warned of came to be. He wondered if he maybe believed a bit more about what magpies meant, he could have possibly saved Pandora.

He shook his head. What could have been didn't matter. He couldn't change the past, no matter how much he wished otherwise.

All that he could do was focus on moving forward and being the best father he could to Luna. She needed him, and he wouldn't let her down.

 _One for sorrow,_

 _Two for mirth_

 _Three for a funeral,_

 _Four for birth_

 _Five for heaven_

 _Six for hell_

 _Seven for the devil, his own self_

\- "One For Sorrow" (London, 1846)

* * *

 **Ending Notes:** I researched Magpies and the children's nursery rhyme, "One For Sorrow" is about magpies and according to an old superstition, the number of magpies one sees determines if one will have bad luck or not.


End file.
